Addressing the wicked problem of behaviour in schools

Behaviour management is an influential educational cliché in Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand and US. In practice, efforts to control student conduct in schools frequently utilise a manage-and-discipline model: a misinformed but deeply rooted set of interconnected notions about how to ensure an orderly and productive classroom. Students with disabilities affecting their behavioural development or who have mental health (MH) difficulties frequently face disadvantage, suspension or exclusion as a result of the application of this model in practice. Accommodating the behavioural needs of this population and at the same time, enabling their inclusion therefore represents a significant wicked problem for education in Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand and US. Evidence-based initiatives designed to address this dilemma in the US since the late 1990s, using PBS (Positive Behaviour Support) and also SWPBS (School-Wide Positive Behaviour Support), are outlined but the conclusion is reached that these efforts do not appear to have been successful. Recommendations are made for progress in tackling this wicked problem and include: wholehearted rejection of the manage-and-discipline model by practitioners; targeted support for teachers experiencing (or at risk of experiencing) occupational burnout; and the introduction of tangible educational policy incentives intended to encourage schools to include students who might otherwise face suspension or exclusion on behavioural grounds. Finally, this article advocates radical change in attitudes by teachers towards student conduct in schools and argues that educational practice should align with insights about human behaviour arising from research in developmental psychology.